A Long Wait
by 252020
Summary: Harry Potter and the immortal captain sequel, second version. After jumping though the rift cuffed to John Harry hesitantly makes his way back to Torchwood, and to Jack.


**Sequel to Harry Potter and the Immortal Captain (version 2), if you haven't read that story you won't get this one at all. **

Harry stared at the eight digits drawn on his arm with mixed feelings, as he had often done in the past, especially in the last 5 years. No more than a year after he had woken up in the past without his worldly possessions, without his wand, and without Jack, he had come up with the idea. It may have to be thousands years of years before he could see Jack again, it did not have to be as long for Jack. Jack had already been abandoned once too many. On the evening of his departure, Harry vowed, he would make sure to show himself to Jack again. It was a vow he could not allow himself to forget it and to insure that he had taken a knife and written the date of his departure into his very flesh that very first time. It had been painful and since his first crude attempt he had been forced to put the digits back too many times to count as he was healed and returned from death's doors.

What had started out as a fairly large and ugly scar on his arm, barely legible to even Harry himself, had now become a fairly discreet tattoo that over the years had awoken many questions and much curiosity among friends, lovers, and wards. Yet only a hand full had learned the truth, even less had been able to accept it. But the next time Harry was refused by death there would be no need to renew the tattoo. It would be over. After two thousand years, the wait would be over. The thought was an odd one, almost as odd as the thought of seeing Jack again.

Harry had barely remembered what Jack looked like by the time had first sought him out in this time period, but occasionally watching him with his younger self had brought many memories back to him, even some emotions. Though he could not claim to love Jack at this moment in time, he still felt something, and he knew he would have to see him after his younger-self jumped into the rift with John. Just as he had sworn he would do all those years ago.

Harry looked at the clock on his mobile, it was less than an hour left before it was time. It truly was odd how time worked…

He was hesitant, as he moved to the hub, not sure what he would find. He had only a very vague recollection of what it looked like inside, and almost no genuine memories as to who the people inside were, just foggy images, official profiles, and observations he had made in the last year to prepare for this meeting. So it was with some amusement Harry noted that he was nervous, he hadn't been really nervous in almost a century, not since the last time he told his wife at the time of his immortality. It had not gone over well, and at some level he thought he knew it wouldn't have.

He had only been able to stay with her for five more years after he told her or risk her sanity and he had loved her too much to do that. Soon after learning the truth she started becoming obsessed with looking for signs of her own body aging, frightened he would cease to find her attractive, that people would think her a cradle robber, or what else people might think of them. He had seen signs that she had begun to resent him too, even though her love never lessened. The contrast between the two warring emotions would have driven her mad, he knew. He had seen it happen once before and he would not be the cause of it again, and though it had pained him to leave her he fakes his death and left. She had never remarried, though she had taken the money he had left her and become a respectable young widow who spent her time and money running a small orphanage in their old country home. And though he stayed away until the very end he had been so proud of her as he kept an eye on her from a distance. It wasn't until she was on her deathbed Harry made his way back to her bedside, apologizing, while she stared at him as if he was an angel, whispering that he had come back to her.

When he stepped inside the hub his heart was beating quickly and he thanked his parents for the genes they had left him with, or he was certain his hands could be clammy with nervous sweat as well a hammering heart. As it was, he was fairly certain the only thing that might give away his nerves was his heartbeat. Thankfully his vampire lover from his old world, whose name he had long since forgotten, was not in attendance. She would not have been able to stop teasing him about it for years to come, though he did not particularly remember her, apart from her species, and long almost blood red hair, he was absolutely certain of this.

Over time he had come to take such notions with stride, as it seemed that was how his memory worked. He would retain only certain aspects of the time he had spent with people in his long life. Some memories and people were clearer than others, some were memories of facts, some were emptions, some were images, and some were combinations of the others. He didn't like to dwell on it or guilt and annoyance would surely drive him as mad as his presence and never changing body had slowly driven Sarah mad back in the 9th century. Sarah, now that was a name he was sure he would never forget, just as he would never forget the first life he had taken as a gladiator and the joyous roars from the audience that had followed, or Jack's expression when he had gone though the rift. While the memory of his eye and hair colours had gotten vaguer over time, but that expression never had. At least the latter was something he could do something about now.

Harry had not taken more than a few steps into the Torchwood hub before his eyes locked with Jack's, but when he didn't say anything Harry was uncertain as what to do. Then, as Jack got his wits about him, he rushed towards him with his fist raised. Of all the possible scenarios that had played out in Harry's mind, that had never been one of them and as a result all he did was stand there as Jack decked him, then crashed his lips onto his the moment he hit the floor.

"Don't you ever do that to me again!" Jack finally demanded when he broke the kiss. Though his words seemed to falter in the end as he took his first good look at Harry. "Harry, how far back did you end up?"

"That obvious?" Harry asked almost sheepishly. "I didn't think you would notice that quick, then again I didn't think you would try to hit me either."

"I didn't try, I did." Jack countered, though his heart wasn't in it. "How long?"

"A long time, much further back than you and I ended up."

"How much further?"

"Two thousand years give or take a few decades." Neither spoke.

"You haven't aged a day." Jack finally commented, almost self-consciously touching a few strains of greying hair on his own head. Harry remembered the first time Jack had noticed his first grey strand. Perhaps it was an odd thing to remember, but he did and it brought a small, sad, smile to his lips.

"I know."

"All that time…What- What have you been doing?" Jack asked, seeming to have a hard time to find the right words.

"This and that. Jack if this is hard for you, I understand. I mean, I don't expect us to be as we were, and I know I might should have given you more time to some to grips with what just happened but…. I just wanted to let you know I am alright. I promised myself to find you as soon as I could after I landed in the past. But I don't expect anything for you, or Torchwood. I'm just keeping a promise."

"You want to leave?" He asked, suddenly sounding angry. "You are not leaving. You are not going anywhere and I expect you back at work tomorrow."

"Jack…"

"On second thought, you are staying right here. I should handcuff you to me, I actually think I will."

"You don't know me anymore."

"As long as there is even a hint of the old Harry hidden within you, I won't ever let you go. You are mine."

**The END**

This is the end of this story, though I might end up doing another sequel to this one set about a year or two later. But it won't be longer than this one. And I only did this one because someone sent me request for it, and since I happened to have been in Cardiff when I got that request and had just seen "Ianto's Shrine" there. I felt like I had to =) I hope you enjoyed it.


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